


Pluck at the (Heart) Strings

by MFM



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Gay Disaster Takami Chika, Making Out, Teaching, Very Handsy Teacher Kurosawa Dia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25457941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MFM/pseuds/MFM
Summary: Chika takes a sudden interest in learning the koto, and to that end she enlists the help of the best koto player she knows, who also happens to be her girlfriend. Only two problems with her master plan:1. Her girlfriend is one Kurosawa Dia, drill sergeant instructor extraordinaire.2. She's so madly in love with her girlfriend that she can't focus on the lessons.
Relationships: Kurosawa Dia/Takami Chika
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Pluck at the (Heart) Strings

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a rarepair event over on Discord. Despite what I said on my last Dia/Chika story this isn't actually following up on that in any way shape or form so sorry if you were expecting that.

“I must admit, Chika, I never expected you to be interested in the koto,” Dia thought aloud as the two of them set foot in the Kurosawa household.

The younger of the two, already clinging onto her girlfriend’s arm, squeezed tighter as she responded with a sly grin, “Is there something wrong with me taking an interest in my girlfriend’s hobbies?”

“Not necessarily,” the black-haired girl stated, too busy dragging the other girl along to be embarrassed by her shows of affection, “but your interest did seem to come from nowhere.”

“Not to worry!” Chika relinquished Dia’s arm just long enough to put a hand to her chest, declaring, “I assure you I’ll become the greatest koto player in all of Numazu!”

Dia did not dignify the exclamation with a proper response, though she did let slip a small chuckle as she delved deeper into the rooms of her abode. Chika, realizing she was about to be left behind, scurried after her, amending, “After you, of course.”

The visitor to the Kurosawa household found her venture into the dwelling’s depths surprisingly uneventful, though she chalked at least part of that up to her opting to orbit her host throughout most of the trek. It wasn’t until they reached their destination that the orange-haired girl took notice of their surroundings, in particular the fabled instrument that rested in a corner of the room. She was quick to approach it, but as she reached out to pluck one of its strings, her host foiled her attempt with a declaration of, “Hold on, I need to get ready first.”

And just as quickly as the two of them had entered the room, Dia exited once more, leaving Chika alone with the koto. Being herself, the orange-haired girl reached to pluck at the instrument’s strings once more, only for her girlfriend to foil her all over again by calling out from the next room over, “No touching the koto until I get back!”

Chika pouted in the general direction the call came from, and contented herself with sliding a finger along the instrument’s base before distancing herself from it. Deprived of her only source of entertainment in the moment, she opted instead to let her gaze wander around the room. No shortage of traditional decorations were peppered across the room, and Chika mused she expected nothing less from her partner.

That train of thought quickly rerailed into her wondering why she would need to get ready to teach the koto, but that train hardly got to leave the station before Dia reentered, and the sight of her stopped Chika’s thought process dead in its tracks.

Gone was the school uniform she had been wearing moments prior, and in its place Dia wore a striking scarlet kimono. It was hardly the first time Chika had seen her girlfriend in the attire, but the setting and unexpectedness left the whole scenario much more difficult for her to process.

“Sorry for the wait,” Dia explained, brushing stray hairs behind her ear, “but I always have trouble playing if I’m not dressed for the occasion. It’s silly, I know.” Chika babbled the closest thing her hormone-addled mind could muster to a response, but Dia couldn’t quite make out the noise her girlfriend was making, instead taking notice of the frayed threads on one of her sleeves. She grimaced and said to nobody in particular, “I do wish I had some better-looking kimonos for the occasion, though.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Chika shouted instantly, clasping the black-haired girl’s hands in her own. “It looks amazing, and you look just as beautiful as ever in it!”

The suddenness of the gesture took Dia by surprise, enough so that it took her a good few seconds to notice the intense shade of pink on the orange-haired girl’s face. She smiled and gingerly pulled her hands away, replying, “That’s very kind of you to say, but perhaps we should get started on the lessons.”

“Oh, uh, right,” Chika stated, forcing a laugh, but as she started moving back toward the koto, her tutor stopped her by grabbing her hand in turn. Her mind ran rampant once more, reminded all over again of how soft her girlfriend’s hands were and the delicate precision every movement of her fingers carried. She desperately looked away to try and hide her embarrassment, but that only refocused her senses on the smoothness of the other girl’s hands running along her own.

So distracted was she by her own intrusive thoughts that she failed to notice Dia sliding picks onto her fingers before releasing them as she explained the necessity of the picks for playing the koto, and the rapidity with which her pupil withdrew her arm caused the black-haired girl to raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to do this today, Chika?” Dia asked, moving directly into the other girl’s line of sight. “You seem awfully distracted.”

“Yeah I’m fine!” she lied, doing all she could to maintain eye contact to show how fine she was. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and reopened her eyes with a pump of her fists. “C’mon, let’s do this.”

Chika took her place before the koto of legend once more and knelt before it, awaiting instruction from her mentor. Following a fair few seconds of silence, she looked over her left shoulder and didn’t see the other girl there. Her curiosity mounting, she turned to look over her other shoulder and thought, _‘Oh my god her face is so close.’_

Dia was kneeling right behind Chika, and as she started to explain the proper position for playing the instrument, she wrapped her arms around her pupil’s. The orange-haired girl responded by snapping to attention, returning her gaze to the koto and resisting the urge to flail about.

“You’ll want to place your left hand here,” the black-haired girl said, sliding Chika’s arm to the far side of the instrument. She then took her sweet time affixing each of Chika’s fingers to proper koto-playing form. As she did so and their hands intertwined, the orange-haired girl became vividly aware of the weight of her girlfriend’s body on her back and the suppleness of her fingers.

Once Dia finished adjusting her pupil’s grip, she shifted on her knees to Chika’s other side. “You’ll use your left hand to adjust the pitch of each string, and your right to actually pluck them,” she explained as she adjusted the other girl’s right fingers.

Chika grunted her understanding, hardly able to compose any thought more complex than that. Her girlfriend’s shifting all around her made her all too aware of her scent, like the first flowers of spring blooming. Figuring she should at least pretend she could focus, she cleared her throat and answered, “Alright, I got it.”

“Good,” Dia chuckled, draping herself over her girlfriend in an act the orange-haired girl swore couldn’t have been anything but outright seduction. “Now try plucking each of the strings in sequence, just to get an idea for their sound.”

Chika nodded and did as she was told, slowly moving her fingers down the koto and plucking each string as she went. Strings one through six formed a slow but sure descending melody to calm her raging nerves. As she moved to pluck string seven though, she felt the tickle of Dia’s hot breath against her ear, and in an instant all that calm vanished, a phenomenon which manifested in Chika snapping that poor string right in two.

Time froze. The orange-haired girl stared at the space that had held a string just a moment prior for what felt like an eternity, but in reality it was a mere instant. In that instant she became aware of the gravity of her misdemeanor, a suspicion confirmed when her mentor asked in a low voice from behind her, “Chika? How did you manage that?”

“I can explain!” she stammered, breaking away from the other girl and knocking the already abused koto askew in the process. Formulating an explanation became exponentially more difficult for Chika when she noticed the specter of death plastered across her mentor’s countenance, but nevertheless she was able to choke out, “Sorry, I just got distracted by–“

“By what?” the black-haired girl asked, jolting to her feet with the speed and ferocity of a geyser. “What could have possibly been so distracting that you’d so casually break a prized instrument?”

A pregnant pause fell between the two, a war raging in Chika’s head over whether the answer she was about to give would sate her girlfriend’s wrath. Eventually her honesty won out over her self-preservation instinct, and with a deep breath she stated, “By how beautiful you were.”

“Oh, really? I understand,” Dia replied, in a low voice that made it overwhelmingly clear she didn't understand in the slightest.

“I’ll do anything to pay you back!” Chika pleaded, putting her hands together as if in prayer. “Just please don’t hate me for this!”

“Anything, you say?” The black-haired girl chuckled as she strode towards her girlfriend, and while Chika daren’t look at her in the moment, she did hear Dia kneel a scant foot away from her. So great was her fear that she initially processed Dia’s following statement as the lamentations of a higher power, incomprehensible to her mere mortal ears. But then her hearing caught up to her common sense and she realized what she’d actually said.

“Then, give me a kiss.”

Chika snapped to attention, taken off guard once more by how close her girlfriend’s face was but resisting the instinct to reel away from her. “Really?” she asked, her tone equal parts disbelief and relief. “If I kiss you, you’ll forgive me?”

Dia didn’t give a verbal answer, a nod and a finger to her lips being the only assurance she needed to give her girlfriend. The orange-haired girl gulped and closed her eyes, inching her lips closer to the other girl’s. The instant she felt their lips brush together she pulled a centimeter away, but quickly redoubled her efforts, leaning in and giving her girlfriend a proper kiss.

The cinnamon taste of Dia’s lips caused Chika’s doubt and worry to melt away, any other reason for the kiss falling by the wayside as she wrapped her arms around the kimono-clad girl. Dia mirrored the gesture, but much to her girlfriend’s disappointment pulled away from the kiss after what felt like not nearly long enough. A warm smile consumed the black-haired girl’s expression, and she asked, “Would you like to hear a secret, Chika?”

“I’d rather be kissing you,” Chika grumbled, giving the most exaggerated pout possible, “but sure.”

Giving an aside glance to the long since forgotten instrument, Dia revealed, “I was planning to replace the koto’s strings soon anyway. You’re supposed to replace them every few years, and it’d been far too long since I’d done that.”

Realization dawned on the orange-haired girl’s face. “Then, this whole time you’ve–“

“Just been teasing you, yes,” the black-haired girl interrupted with a nod.

Chika wasn’t sure she could pout more than she already was, but she gave her best effort, muttering, “I would’ve just kissed you if you asked.”

“I’m sorry,” Dia chuckled, “but after seeing how flustered you were I couldn’t resist teasing you just a bit.”

Expecting another sour remark from her girlfriend, Dia was surprised when a silence settled between them. Chika cast her gaze downward and did all in her power to hide her face from the other girl. Dia’s surprise gave way to confusion, and as the silence became more and more prolonged, that in turn gave way to concern, then guilt. That silence between them soon became unbearable, and with a quiet plea in her voice, Dia asked, “Chika?”

In an instant all ill will vanished from the orange-haired girl, and she pounced onto her girlfriend, mashing their lips together once more. The action left Dia’s eyes wide and her face a deep crimson, but she was quick to give into the sweet yet sour taste of Chika’s lips. Or at least she tried to, but just as she really got into the kiss, Chika pulled away. Giving a toothy grin, the orange-haired girl stated, “When you say something like that you know I have to get you back somehow.”

The blush that colored Dia’s face calmed slightly, but that made it no less obvious. In spite of her embarrassment however she managed a chuckle, and she leaned into her girlfriend once more. The exhale from the giggle she let slip tickled Chika's face, and before coercing her into one final kiss she replied, “I suppose we’re even, then.”

The instant the two entered that embrace the world around them dissolved. There was no broken koto languishing in the corner of the room, no traditional decor encroaching upon them, and even the concept of time itself faded away. In that moment Chika perceived only the taste of cinnamon upon her girlfriend, and Dia perceived only the taste of mikan upon hers. Both girls pulled each other closer and closer, to the point they were practically sinking into one another. The shallow breaths they shared in that moment became the only sounds in the world, and those sounds formed a symphony no instrument could ever hope to match.

After an eternity that felt like it passed in a moment, the two parted their lips, both their faces flushed. They looked longingly into one another’s eyes, desperate for more but all too aware that they had to stop eventually. Dia was the one to break the protracted silence, asking her love with the lightest hint of a jovial smile, “So, how was your first koto lesson?”

Chika answered with the most effervescent smile she could muster, and she declared to her love, “It was enlightening.”


End file.
